The Mongolian Parliament is enforcing judicial reforms whereby 57 judges from the primary court and 21 judges from the appeal court are supposed to be replaced.

To explain the new judicial law, P.Tsagaan, the Chief of Staff of the President of Mongolia, and Ch.Unurbayar, Legal policy adviser to President Ts.Elbegdorj, spoke about the judicial reform in Mongolia.

-It is widely spoken that if judges are paid more, the worse corruption will become. What are your opinions on the consequences?

P.Tsagaan: Previously the judicial budget used to be submitted by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance to the Government. But now the General Council of Courts will directly deliver the judicial budget to Parliament starting from the next budget year.

The main goal of this reform is to keep judicial power away from improper influence from other branches of government, or from private or partisan interests, by separating the budget. The increase in the judicial budget was given strong consideration for the necessary investment for guaranteeing justice in society. 

As a result judges will decide cases and make rulings according to the rule of law and judicial discretion, even if those decisions are politically unpopular or opposed by powerful interests. 

-Are there any records of judges being charged for being involved in corruption?

P.Tsagaan: Complaints of bribery and corruption are piled up at the Office of the Staf of the President of Mongolia. There are still numerous complaints of judge`s unfair decisions and conflict of interests which is why the judicial reform was launched. 

Ch.Unurbayar: According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, Mongolia has made progress in the fight against corruption but the Corruption Perception Index is high in judicial power.

The law stipulates that the Anti Corruption Authority Mongolia will investigate the corruption cases instead of the State Investigation Department in order to cut corruption in the judicial system.

-The Judges will be replaced next month. Do you think that a task force can manage to do an analysis of the hundreds of decisions made by each judge?

P.Tsagaan: Our agenda is to do an analysis on former decisions.

If a judge rules on 50 cases, some of these might have gone to the appeal and control court. Then we will check how many of them are affirmed and how many rejected in order to analyze if the judge made a one sided decision or used the law wrongly. There are over 70 thousand cases in the primary court. The task force will undertake analysis on a selected 360 judges decisions, particularly for rejected and changed cases.